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21st Vuelta a Castilla y Leon - 2.1

Spain, March 20-24, 2006

Stage 5 - March 24: La Granja - Segovia, 147.1km

Vino takes it all

Alexandre Vinokourov (Liberty Seguros) has capped off an impressive performance
in the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon by winning the final stage, as well as the overall
classification. Despite leading the race anyway coming into stage 5, Vinokourov
attacked on the last climb to cross the line four seconds ahead of Aketza Peña
(Euskaltel-Euskadi) and seven ahead of Angel Edo (Andalucia-Paul Versan).

Vinokourov said on the podium afterwards that he was "finishing the work of
my teammates. In the first passage of the finish line, I saw that the finish
was good for me, I liked it and because of that, I tried to win. Still I am
not at 100 percent, but I am on the right track."

Overall, Vinokourov said, "For me, this race has been a good test. I have
proved myself in the high mountains, on climbs of 2,000 meters, and I believe
that I am on the right track for the Tour. Even in the last stage, we had to
work on first category climbs, and it is good preparation for the Tour, because
it was a very hard race."

Liberty Seguros and Discovery Channel dominated the overall standings, with
three Libertys and four Discoverys in the top nine. As such, the tactics were
played out between these two teams on the final day, with Discovery unsuccessfully
trying to crack the Liberty boys.

On the Cat. 1 Puerto De Navafria after 41 km, Janez Brajkovic (Discovery Channel)
pushed the pace and crossed first ahead of Pradera (Caisse d'Epargne), Scarponi
and Vinokourov (both Liberty). On the descent, Brajkovic and Pradera attacked,
and were joined by Iban Mayo (Euskaltel), Adolfo García Quesada (Andalucia-Paul
Versan), Laurens Ten Dam (Unibet.com) and later, Raúl García (Relax-Gam). The
group opened up a lead of 2'00 by km 73, giving Brajkovic the virtual lead.

On the Cat. 1 Puerto de Cotos (km 79), Brajkovic was again first ahead of
Ten Dam, Raúl García, Pradera, Adolfo García and Mayo. Cayetano Juliá (Caisse
d'Epargne) managed to bridge up to the group to form a septet in front, that
enjoyed a lead of 1'55 with 50 km to go.

But the inevitable chase started, and the group was all absorbed by km 131,
leaving Liberty in a solid position for the final circuit. First Luis Pasamontes
(Unibet.com), then Torrent (Viña Magna-Cropu), Aketza Peña (Euskaltel) and Popovych
(Discovery Channel) attacked in the final phase, managing a maximum lead of
15 seconds over the bunch, where Andalucia-Paul Versan was also chasing. Peña
and Popovych dropped the other two and made a bid for victory, with Peña looking
the best on the final 1.5 km climb to the finish. But the peloton closed in,
and Vinokourov powered past the Euskaltel rider to take the stage win, leaving
no doubt as to who was the strongest in this race.